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Monday, February 11, 2013

Cabin Fever

Unless you've been away on a tropical island without any sort of link to the outside world, (in which case, I HATE you!), you know that the northeast was hit with "Winter Storm Nemo." It seems we've been getting storms like this more often. Last winter was mild, but the winter before Long Island was slammed. Looking back, I think we've had a super snow storm about every three years since I've been married and living in this house ('95).

It all began on Friday when I had the pleasure of driving to Freeport for work, which is an hour drive on a good day. It was freezing rain by around 6 am, and since I had to be at work by 9 am, I left a little after 7. The traffic was okay. I just took it nice and slow. Thankfully I brought my car in on Wednesday because it was doing some shaking at high speeds. The tires were fine until I asked him to do a wheel alignment. Before I knew it, I needed two new tires, a tie rod and some sort of steering knuckle, along with the wheel alignment, which ran us about $800. ugh. At least I knew the car was good to go, until I had to cross over the bay to Fire Island on the Robert Moses bridge. My car felt like it was all over the place. It was fine for the 30 minute ride before that, so I came to the conclusion that it was the wind gusts that they warned us about making my car shimmy like that. I white-knuckled it the rest of the way to work and vowed NOT to take that route home!

Thankfully it was only going to be a half day, taking cap and gown pictures of the 4th graders moving up, so I would be getting out before the worst of it. I left at noon and took Sunrise Hwy. home, the entire way. It's not the optimum route, because there's a lot of traffic lights for at least 20 minutes, but I feel safer on roads like that, especially since there's a lot of businesses and gas stations on it, just in case! Ocean Parkway, my usual route, is pretty much no man's land, especially in the winter, when summer homes are left vacant. In fact, if you heard about all of the bodies being found on Long Island, near Gilgo Beach, that's exactly what I drive through! Oh, but the view of the Atlantic on a good day makes up for it! *snicker*

The kids had a regular day of school since the snow didn't hit our area until around 4 pm. Charlie's store closed at 4 pm, so he didn't have to work until 9 pm and then fight his way home. Thank God!!! By 6 pm, major highways were shutting down to only emergency vehicles and 100's of cars were getting stuck, leaving people stranded. He would have probably been one of them. My poor niece works 2 jobs, wasn't out of her 1st job until 6 pm, drove 2 1/2 hours to her 2nd job, and wound up getting snowed in there. Thankfully she works at Walgreen's, and probably the only place better to get stuck at would be Walmart or Target. She was able to eat (they have fresh and frozen food and a microwave in the break room), be entertained with cards and board games, and attempt sleep since they have blankets and pillows for sale! She actually laid down in the candy aisle! Talk about sweet dreams! They were allowed to eat what they wanted. I probably would have had to been ROLLED out of there in the morning!

This is Middle Country Rd., a 4 lane major roadway! My niece's store is on this road. (Photo courtesy of Tri Hamlet News and Rob Nolan)

So, the snow hit and it just kept coming. I shoveled early in the afternoon when it was just slush. That made shoveling the 3 or 4" at 7 pm a bit easier. Charlie went back out again at 1 am and shoveled a good 5 or 6" and cleared the end of the driveway where we were plowed in. I wasn't happy about him being out there and I could tell he was in agony from the wet, cold wind, but it made my job that much easier at 9 am. There was probably another 5" on the ground. I never did see what the official snowfall amount was for MY town, but a town 4 miles north of us got almost 31". It really didn't matter what any of us got because the job that was done clearing Suffolk County of this storm was a disaster. We all knew it was coming, but for some reason they got so far behind that even the plows were getting stuck. I can not WAIT to see the news briefing on the response to this storm by the D.O.T.

Bundled up and ready to tackle Nemo Saturday morning. Between shoveling the driveway and keeping the outside basement doors clear, I had at least 4 hours of shoveling workouts.

Thankfully, my husband's store was closed on Saturday, and he's off on Sundays. The Long Island Expressway and Sunrise Hwy. were closed for a very long time. In fact, the LIE just opened up this morning, TWO days after the storm!

All that snow will be there until it melts. The driveway and mailbox are done. The walkway can rot!

We always park single file with a bad storm- it makes for less shoveling!

So, Charlie and the kids were home since Friday at 4:30 pm. (Charlie went into work at 11 this morning.) There's been a lot of video games played and tv watched. I cooked and baked a lot. I made a chocolate chip quick bread and whoopie pies, the perfect treat on a cold night paired with a mocha cappuccino.

DELICIOUS!

I finally made it out a little while ago. I had no choice. My Kohl's bill needed to get paid TODAY. SO, that meant a trip to the bank before Kohl's. The drive through was closed so I had to brave that parking lot, but it was a good thing, since it forced me to go into the adjoining grocery store and pick up more bread and snacks, since we were dangerously low. That's what happens when 4 people are stuck in the house for 3+ days. A 16 year old son can literally eat you out of house and home. After that, I made it to Kohl's in one piece and paid my bill. Do you know how hard it is to go in there and NOT buy something? Especially when you know the clearance racks are chock full of new stock? I really deserve a medal. It would look nice next to my Diva Half marathon bling.

Yeah you deserve a medal. I went into Kohl's last week for some work out pants and came out with a running jacket, two pair of workout pants, 3 workout tops and two bikinis. Thankfully I had gift cards and I got to use my Kohls charge and get 15% off for my "you pick" day.

So glad you guys were safe!! The amount of snow you got was insane! We hardly got anything here in comparison.